Grandma's Sleepover

Grandma's Sleepover is without a doubt the most anticipated event of the year for my kids. A sleepover with cousins, Grandma calling all the shots with no parents interfering, new matching jammies, honestly what's not to love about it? My mom really went above and beyond planning this year to make sure that each of the different age groups had fun. On top of all the usual traditions of a kid favorites dinner, time in the hot tub, and jumping on the mattresses; my dad took Cannon and Mason bowling, the girls had plenty of time to play alone in 'the brown room' (that was their big request for the night), my mom played games and watched a movie with the little boys, and the babies were doted on and adored by all their cousins. We even avoided any huge meltdowns by any of my kids, so that was a big bonus.

While the kids were away for the night the adults enjoyed a yummy dinner at Outback together. Since Brandon and Whitney were picking up Carson, Chris and Kacie had a neighborhood party they wanted to go to, and we had to check in on Zoey, we all split up to do our own thing after dinner. After stopping to take Zoey out, Scott took me to Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point. I have wanted to go the last couple years, but didn't want to pay the high price to drag whining and complaining kids around in the cold. With it being after Christmas and late at night the crowds were all gone and it felt like we had the place to ourselves. It was so peaceful walking around talking and laughing with my best friend. I especially loved going through the Light of the World exhibit that has the most amazing statues of the Saviors life. The spirit was so strong as we walked through the displays and I like to think I felt Ellie a little closer to us while we were there, too. It was amazing the contrast we felt as we left the Light of the World with it's calming peace and spirit and re-entered Luminaria with it's bright lights and loud Christmas music. It was a very obvious contrast between a Christ centered Christmas and the world's Christmas. The whole night was absolutely perfect. I am finding more and more that the opportunities I have to step away from the noise and chaos of the world recharges my battery so much more than watching shows or going to movies or surrounding myself with groups of people. I hope to be able to set aside more time this next year for quiet reflection and meditation because I am learning how much I benefit from it.

The next morning we picked up the kids and on the drive home they were already talking about how excited they are for next year's Grandma's Sleepover.

Miles' Marvel-ous Birthday

Sometimes we celebrate Miles' birthday a month early so it doesn't get swallowed up by Christmas. This year I had additional motivation to get the party done early so I wouldn't have to stress about doing it with a new puppy. Miles didn't have to think twice about what kind of party he wanted this year. It was Marvel all the way! His only specific requests for the party were to have a pinata they got to punch with Hulk Buster hands and pictures of different Marvel characters hanging from the ceiling for decorations. Easy enough. He invited some of his friends from school, church, and neighbors. They started off by decorating their own shields. Then it was time for their training. We had several stations set up downstairs for them to rotate through. The Hulk Station with a punch board filled with prizes. This seemed like such a simple idea, but putting the board together proved to be much more of a pain than I anticipated. The kids absolutely loved it, though. Next was Hawkeye's station where they had to shoot bad guys with a nerf bow and arrow. Then we had the Flash Station where we timed each of them doing a shuttle run. Miles was very serious about running as fast a the Flash. I took of picture of him running that naturally turned out blurry. I showed it to him and jokingly said, "Look, you ran so fast you were just a blur like the Flash." You should have seen his beaming face and he went around telling everyone he ran so fast he was a blur. The last station was knocking over a stack of cups with Captain America's shield. When everyone had completed all of the stations we went upstairs for the pinata. It was rainy and cold so we had to get creative and come up with a way to do the pinata inside. It was hilarious and anxiety filled to watch as I was trying to make sure everyone got a turn and that no one ended up with stitches from a wayward swing. After the pinata was broken and the candy gathered we heard rumors of some villains who were downstairs and our superheros ran downstairs to attack. They engaged in a fantastic snowball fight with our wonderful villains Mason, Daniel, Brynn, and Maggie. After our villains were defeated we celebrated with cake and ice cream while Miles opened presents. Miles last present of the night was a surprise from us and my parents and was the pedal go cart like his friend Cannon's that he has been wanting for almost a year. Miles loved every second of the day and at the end of the night he gave me a big hug and said, "This was the best day of my life, Mom. Thanks!" That's what makes all the work of these parties worth it. I love seeing my kids happy and I hope they feel special on a day that we celebrate them!

Cole, Andrew, Chase, Diesel, Miles, Brock, Cade, Jake, Cannon, Zac, Ronan

About 6-year-old Miles

• Loves all things Marvel and all things Lego and if it is Marvel Legos than he is in heaven.
• Much to my dismay he is seriously addicted to playing video games and rarely a day goes by that he doesn't spend some amount of time playing the PS4 or Wii. His favorite games are Mario Kart, Madden 17, NBA2k, Lego Marvel, and recently he started exploring Minecraft. 
• Miles is a total smarty pants. He is already a great reader in kindergarten and he constantly blows me away with his math abilities. He definitely has a mathematical mind like his Daddy's and numbers and how they relate to one another just click in his brain. We have yet to reach the ceiling of how high he can count but we know it is at least into the thousands. He can add and subtract at a very high level, skip count like a pro,  I could go on and on. It really is amazing to me what his mind is capable of.
• He is still our sports enthusiast and is a great little athlete. Not only is he naturally athletic, but he understand the games more than most kids his age - including all the cool lingo he picks up from Mason and his buddies and the Playstation games. It is not uncommon to hear phrases like, "I rejected him!", "He O'delled it!", "I broke his ankles", etc. Oh boy.
• We still have a Dr Jeckel/Mr Hyde effect every afternoon when Miles gets tired and he goes from being sweet and obedient to an emotional monster. Not his finest hours of the day.
• He can't stand it when his glasses are dirty and will take them off as soon as they have a smudge on them. As soon as his glasses are off his eye crosses constantly. He has gotten very good at "self patching" by just closing his left eye which is his bad eye to correct his vision. It is practically a part time job for me keeping his glasses clean and on his face throughout the day. 
• Every single night when I tuck him into bed we do a hug and a kiss and I love you. Then he says, "Goodnight Mom. I Love you. See you in the morning" in the sweetest voice. 
• He is a mama's boy. Unless Grandma Nancy is around. Then he's a grandma's boy.
• He is amazing at doing his jobs each day. He wakes up and makes his bed before coming upstairs. Even if it is at 4 am. The minute he walked in the door from school he gets to work doing his jobs and moving his magnets because he knows he can't play the PlayStation until his jobs are done. 
• Miles is a great little piano player. Once again, it just clicks in his brain.
• Miles thinks he is 10 and loves hanging out with Mason and his friends more than kids his own age. They all seem to think he is pretty cool and like having him around, except Mason.
• Miles still loves to color and write. He has amazing handwriting for a kindergartner and is starting to sound out and spell words on his own. We get a lot of pictures and notes made for us each day and they are my absolute favorite.

Zoey

It's been a week since we brought our darling puppy, Zoey, home. Everyone who said having a puppy is like having a newborn wasn't kidding!! This puppy business is a whole lot of work! But Zoey is the most amazing dog and we are all very glad that she is part of our family.
When we started talking seriously about getting a dog for Christmas I couldn't help but imagine a scene straight out of the movies where we surprised the kids with a puppy on Christmas morning. It didn't take me long to realize that it would be nearly impossible to pull that off and it was just all around a bad idea. Plus, the more I read about puppy selection, the more I knew that I wanted the kids to be involved in the whole process of picking out and preparing for a puppy. I'm so glad we decided to do it this way because it has really given the kids a sense of ownership and commitment from day one instead of it being a novelty that just appears and then wears off quickly.
The plan was to pick Zoey up on Tuesday after the kids got out of school for Christmas Break. As the day got closer and we were finalizing plans with the breeder we decided it would work out better for everyone's schedule to pick her up a day earlier - but we didn't tell the kids and decided maybe we would try to get a surprise in after all. On Monday night, for family home evening, we surprised the kids by having an early Christmas. I wrapped all our new puppy stuff and put it under the tree. I had been hiding all the packages as they came throughout the month and Brynn was starting to get very worried that none of our supplies had come yet and we were picking up Zoey the next day. She was extremely relieved and excited when we started opening the presents and she realized everything was there. After all the presents had been opened and little voices could be heard saying things like, "I wish we had her here with us right now!" and "I don't think I can wait through a whole day of school tomorrow. I am too excited!" we told the kids we had one more Christmas surprise. I told them all to go put on their shoes and coats and get in the car ... because we were going to get our puppy!  They all exploded with excitement and ran around the house screaming for several minutes. I'm pretty sure I even saw a few glistening tears on Brynn's cheek.

We drove out to Mapleton and picked up our sweet pup. She was so nervous and scared as we got in the car. I sat in the back seat holding her tight and trying to soothe and calm her as she whimpered and I could feel her little heart racing. When we got home the kids couldn't get enough of Zoey and completely wore her out. Once she had crashed we were able to pull the kids away from her and get them to bed. Then we began our first night home with a puppy. 

In a lot of ways it felt like the first night bringing a baby home. Scott set up our video monitor and he watched her every move and listened to her every sound all night long. The night went better than I ever could have hoped for. Her whining was minimal and really only lasted a few minutes each time we took her potty and she had to get settled back in her pen. My heart broke thinking of how scared and alone she must feel. The mother in me couldn't help but sit close to her and pet her until she was settled each time. I wanted to make sure she felt loads of love during this transition. Of course she refused to sleep on the mat or blankets we had for her and just slept on the hard floor instead. We were 1 for 5 on successful potty trips during the night which was a little discouraging, but the next day she started getting the hang of it and has caught onto potty training really well. She stays in the main room where we rolled up all the rugs leaving just laminate floors, which makes house training much less stressful because when an accident does happen it's a quick and easy clean up.

It's only been a week but we are all completely in love with this pup. I can't even count how many times a day one of us can be heard saying what a good dog Zoey is and what a perfect fit for our family she is. Like I said, it has been a LOT of work so far, and I know that there is still a lot more to come. But I am already seeing some of the positive effects I was hoping a dog would bring to my kids and seeing them all so happy makes it totally worth all the time and energy I will be putting into this addition to our family.

Mason had a connection with Zoey from the minute we met her. He was a big reason why we chose her even though she was the bigger than we originally wanted. "I just love looking into her eyes" he frequently says. I think this is the beginning of a great friendship for him. 

Brynn is on cloud nine with Zoey finally home. As soon as the breeder handed her over to us Brynn hugged me and said, "I'm not the only girl in our family anymore." with a big grin. Brynn has so much love to give and Zoey is one lucky puppy to be on the receiving end of it.

Of all the kiddos, Miles is the one I was most unsure how he would respond to having a dog. So far he loves her a whole lot.

We knew that the hardest thing about getting a puppy right now would be Ryan. Ideally he would have been a year or two older, but for all of our other kids and life in general, now was the right time for us. But keeping up with these two as they fight over toys and dog treats is definitely going to keep me busy.

Welcome to the family Zoey!

Mama #2

Ryan is still very much a Mama's boy, but I'm starting to have some serious competition from Brynn for the position of his favorite. She is pretty much his second mother these days and if my arms aren't available it doesn't take long for him to locate Brynn and go running to her. She is a natural nurturer and she loves Ryan to no end. He trusts her completely and loves her so much. Each morning when I take Ryan downstairs to wake the kids up for school he squeals with absolute delight the moment we enter Brynn's room and he lays eyes on her. She is always quick to jump in and help play with Ryan when I am trying to get something done and he's whining (this is a common situation at our house). We have even started letting her babysit Ryan for very short and controlled periods of time like when I have a quick errand to run or something. Ryan got out "buh" for Brynn before he was consistently saying mama or dada. I hope Ryan always knows how lucky he is to have a big sister, and second mother, like Brynn.

Ryan's Blanky

Ryan was a snugly baby from the minute he was born and 18 months later he remains the snuggliest mama's boy EVER! There has never been any doubt in my mind that he would be a blanky baby, but he has never shown any real preference for one blanket over another, he just loves them all. That is until he recently found Ellie's soft minky blanket in Brynn's room and fell in love with it. It has become his favorite blanket to snuggle up with and nothing could make my heart happier than him having something of his sister's to love and cherish.

Caveman Youth Football - 5th Grade Beast Team

(Insert Pic From Lanyard)

I'm still not exactly sure how he got me to agree to it, but Mason's dream of playing tackle football came true this year. He played his first year with the Caveman Youth Football program on the 5th Grade B team, also known as the Beast Team. Despite their 0-8 record, it was an incredibly successful season as far as I am concerned. As I've said before, my kids don't participate in sports to become Olympic athletes, they do it to learn life lessons. I was amazed at the growth we saw in Mason throughout the season as he handled his anxieties and disappointments. It started with his great attitude when he was placed on the B team instead of the A team with most of the kids from his class. He had a great attitude as he recognized this was actually a better situation for him where he would be one of the starters and leaders on the team, getting to play both ways instead of getting only the required 10 plays a game he would have likely gotten on the A team. I was thrilled that he wouldn't be playing against the biggest, fastest, and hardest hitting kids - gotta protect that brain of his. The commitment to this team was more intense than anything Mason has done up until this point. They practiced every day Monday thru Thursday for 2 hours. By the end of the season it was dark and cold before practice was over. Mason showed up to practice every day ready to work hard and have a good attitude. This earned him the recognition of being one of the team captains for several of the games. As the season progressed and his team struggled with their passing game to the point that even as their starting receiver he went several games without a single pass thrown to him, Mason played his part on the offense and celebrated the successes the running game had. He didn't see much action on offense, but Mason made up for it by playing his heart out on defense. He played cornerback and he covered his side so well that teams rarely got a throw or run past him. In his first game he broke up a pass and nearly intercepted the ball in the end zone until the receiver tackled him drawing an offensive pass interference call which prevented the other team from scoring that drive. When they would watch film as a team each Monday night the coaches would hand out decals for their helmets for all the great plays they had. At the end of the season Mason had the most stickers on the team. But he didn't let that go to his head. During their last game Mason was very aware of the smallest boy on the team who was Mason's backup and only got in for the required 10 plays a game. He hadn't received a single decal all season. Whenever he was in during the game Mason was cheering him on and when he came to the sidelines Mason was praising what a great job he had done. At the end of the game, without any prompting whatsoever, Mason took one of the decals off his helmet and went over and put it on the boy's and told him he had made some awesome plays that day and deserved it. Witnessing that moment made me more proud than any touchdown or undefeated season ever could have.

While Mason passed every emotional test he was given with flying colors, I cannot say the same for me. I failed my first true test as a football mom when Mason was injured on a play and while he was rolling around on the field in pain it looked as if his foot was hanging at an unnatural angle. Before anyone could stop me I was sprinting out on the field in complete, overprotective mom panic. Turns out his pride had been hurt more than his leg and he got up and walked off the field just fine while I did a walk of shame back to the sideline of parents, apologizing for my over reaction. Scott laughed and told me I had better get used to it if I'm going to be a football mom of three boys.

I am so proud of Mason and all of his incredible hard work and discipline this season and can't wait to cheer him on in many seasons to come. 

Puppy Love

About three years ago Brynn developed an intense and irrational fear of dogs out of nowhere. Her fear went far beyond not wanting to get close and pet a dog. It was strong enough to prevent her from going to any friend's house that had a dog. She refused to attend birthday parties if they had a dog, even if the dog was put away. While Trick-or-Treating she would stand on the sidewalk while the other kids knocked on a door and if there was a dog in the house she would skip the house altogether. If we went to a park and there was a dog anywhere in the vicinity she would choose to just sit in the car while the rest of us played. Once, the humane society came and did an assembly at her school and brought a couple dogs. Brynn's teacher let her sit by the back wall of the auditorium with hundreds of students between her and the dogs and Brynn was still in frantic tears the entire time. These are just a few examples of how extreme her fear has been and how much it has affected her day to day life. Her fear quickly spread to include any living animal - big or small. One day Mason came home from school and told me Brynn's class had come to his classroom to see the chicks that had just hatched and Brynn had been crying so he had hugged her and helped her calm down. When I asked Brynn why she was crying she said she was so scared of the chicks and one of them hopped out of someone's hands and started running toward her. We are talking about 2 day old chicks bringing her to tears.
While trying to respect that her fears are very real to her we have been trying to gently help her overcome these fears at least to the point that they don't unhealthily disrupt life.
We have slowly seen improvement over the years, but then a few months ago it was like Brynn just woke up one day and decided not only was she okay with dogs, but she LOVED them. After nearly a year of living here, Brynn stepped foot in her best friend's backyard (who also happens to be our next door neighbor) for the first time. They have 2 outdoor dogs that live in the backyard so Brynn has refused to play over there since day 1. Now suddenly Brynn wanted to spend every day in their backyard playing with the dogs. It didn't take long for her to start asking for a dog of our own and pretty soon she declared that all she wanted for Christmas this year was a dog. Mason and Miles quickly jumped on the bandwagon of asking for a dog although Brynn was the one pushing the hardest. She would leave notes like this on our bed each night begging and pleading for us to let her get a dog. She signed them all "Puppy Lover Brynn."

This started the conversation between Scott and I about getting a dog. Although both of us were perfectly content living our life without a dog, we both had dogs when we were growing up and agreed that every child deserves the chance to have a dog at some point in their life.
I was just 3 years old when my Dad brought Sparky, a 1-year-old Dalmation, home from work one day without ever talking to my mom about it. She could have complained about the added work and mess it would mean for her, but instead she said okay and we all loved that crazy, naughty dog for the next 11 years. I remember when I was growing up and we would do getting to know you games at school that would ask about if you had pets and I always felt so bad for the kids who said their mom wouldn't let them get a pet. I did not want to be the kind of mom that put my preferences and convenience before my kids' experiences and happiness.

Scott was going to take a lot more convincing, but at the same time remembered how he begged and pleaded for a dog growing up until his parents finally caved and let him get his beloved dog Mozart when he was 12 years old.

We both were weakening to the idea.
We knew that in order for us to get a dog it would have to be the right breed. We wanted a breed that would make a great family dog, but we also wanted it to be non-shedding and a smaller size. After doing some research we decided a Mini Goldendoodle would be the best fit for our family. We started looking around and came upon a local breeder who had a litter of F1B (second generation - makes non shedding hair and size more controlled than in first generation) Mini Goldendoodles exactly like we were looking for.

We took the kids out and spent some time with the mama dog, Star, and her litter of ten 4 week old puppies - 5 girls and 5 boys. Star was an amazing dog who was so patient and calm with our kids, even crazy Ryan. Star was an F1 Mini Goldendoodle who had been bred from their family Golden Retriever and a Miniature Poodle. She had ended up about 27 pounds and non-shedding but with the personality of a golden retriever, making her an ideal family dog. This was the third litter from Star and a Miniature Poodle, all of which had been very healthy and good dogs. They even had multiple people coming back to get another dog from this litter because they love their previous dog so much. It felt like the ideal situation for us and before we left we had put down a deposit. Just like that we had committed to getting a puppy. We had to decide if we wanted to be on the list to choose a boy or girl puppy. After much debate we decided to go with a girl because most of them were smaller in size and because the kids all felt like we needed a girl to keep the boy-girl pattern going in our family. Not to mention that Brynn didn't want to be the only girl in the family. The kids could not believe we were actually going to get a dog and were bursting with excitement. We still had over a month until the puppies could leave their mother which was good because we needed that time to prepare to bring a puppy home. We researched and ordered all the different products we would need for our pup and started getting our house set up. We read every book we could on how to train and care for a puppy.

When the puppies were 5 weeks old we were finally able to go pick out which one would be ours. We were the 3rd pick from the girls so there were three puppies left for us to choose from. When we had seen the puppies before there was one girl puppy who was significantly bigger than the others. Since we were looking for a smaller dog we had previously decided we would not be picking her. So when she was one of the dogs the breeder pulled out for us to play with we almost said to just put her back, but almost instantly there was something about her that captivated us all. She had the sweetest personality that was the perfect combination of calm and playful. There was another puppy who perfectly fit the physical description we were looking for. She was petite with lots of dark curls and there was no reason for us to think she wouldn't be a great dog for our family. But we were continually drawn back to the bigger girl. The breeder anticipated that the big girl would grow to be around 35 pounds which was bigger than we wanted, while the little girl would definitely be less than 25 pounds. We went back and forth and back and forth over which puppy to get. The kids had all fallen in love with the bigger puppy- Scott and I too for that matter - but we had already made up our mind we didn't want that big of a dog. We ended up going home that night completely torn and unsure which puppy to choose. After much debate we text the breeder and told her we were going with the smaller puppy. I hardly slept a wink that night as I regretted our decision and just knew in my heart that the big puppy was meant to be a part of our family. Her connection with all of us was undeniable and was far more important than her size. The next morning I text the breeder and told her we were having second thoughts and wanted to switch to the big puppy if it wasn't too late. She responded that she was so glad to hear we had changed our minds because there had been something so special between the kids and the big puppy that she really felt like she would be the perfect family dog for us. The breeder even went so far as to tell me that if she were going to pick a dog from this litter it would be this one because she reminded her of the mom dog, Star, and the grandma dog their pet Golden Retriever who they had loved so much. She said they each possessed a human-like quality that made them a great addition to the family. Later that day she sent us this picture of our sweet puppy.

Even though there is still so much to do in preparation (will I ever really be ready for this?), we are so excited to bring our Pup home in a few weeks.